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Imagery promoting theSoviet Union has been a prominent aspect of theRusso-Ukrainian War, especially since the beginning of theRussian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. BothRussia andRussian separatist forces in Ukraine have used Soviet symbols as a means of expressing their antipathy toUkraine and toUkrainian decommunization policies. For Russia, in particular, these displays are also part of a broader campaign tode-legitimize Ukrainian statehood and justify annexations of the country's territory, as was the case withCrimea in March 2014 and withsoutheastern Ukraine in September 2022.
Inoccupied Ukraine, alongside theSoviet flag, the Russian military has frequently flown theVictory Banner, which was raised by theRed Army at theReichstag during theBattle of Berlin in May 1945. ManyUkrainian collaborators often use theflag of Russia or theflag of Soviet Ukraine, disregarding theflag of independent Ukraine.
In 2015, Ukraine passedlaws banning all communist and Nazi symbols. Consequently, it isillegal under Ukrainian law to use Soviet imagery.
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During theRussian invasion of Ukraine, many Russian military vehicles have been seen sporting theSoviet flag and theVictory Banner. American political scientistMark Beissinger toldFrance 24 that the Russians' motivation for promoting theSoviet Union was not necessarily rooted in a desire to re-establish acommunist state, but rather in a desire to re-establish "Russian domination over Ukraine" and stand in opposition toUkrainian decommunization, which is aimed at shedding the legacy and influence of theRussian SFSR. Soviet symbolsare illegal in Ukraine, and displaying them is also widely regarded as a provocative act in the otherpost-Soviet states, excludingRussia andBelarus, which hasbeen involved in the Russian invasion.[1]
American historianAnne Applebaum toldThe Guardian that: "Because modern Russia stands for nothing exceptcorruption, nihilism, andPutin's personal power, they have brought back Soviet flags as well asLenin statues to symbolise Russian victory."[2] In many occupied Ukrainian towns and cities, including government buildings,Ukrainian flags have been replaced with Victory Banners. The Victory Banner, which was raised at theReichstag to mark the Soviet Union's victory overNazi Germany during theBattle of Berlin in May 1945, is used to represent the claim by Russian presidentVladimir Putin that Ukraine needs to bede-Nazified.[3][4] During theEuromaidan in 2013 and 2014, many monuments dedicated to the Russian revolutionaryVladimir Lenin were removed, and this process was accelerated during theRevolution of Dignity in 2014 and again after the passing ofUkrainian decommunization laws in 2015. Since 2022, however, a number of these monuments have been re-erected inRussian-occupied Ukraine.[2][5][6][7]
In April 2022, a video was filmed of an elderly Ukrainian woman named Anna Ivanovna[8] greeting Ukrainian soldiers while holding aSoviet flag at her home inVelyka Danylivka,[9] saying that she and her husband had "waited, prayed for them, forPutin and all the people."[10] The soldiers gave her food, but took the flag from her and trampled it, to which she stated "my parents died for that flag in theGreat Patriotic War."[9] The video went viral and was featured onRussian state-controlled media, where it was cited byRussian propagandists as proof that theRussian invasion of Ukraine had popular support, in spite of the fact that most Ukrainians—even inRussian-speaking regions—opposed it.[9] Nonetheless, in Russia, murals, postcards, street art, billboards, chevrons, and stickers depicting the woman have been created and displayed in public,[10][11] and a statue of her was unveiled inRussian-occupied Mariupol.[9] She has been nicknamed "GrandmotherZ"[10] and "Grandmother with ared flag" among Russian militarists. She was also referred to as "Grandma Anya" and called "a symbol of the motherland for the entireRussian world" by Russian politicianSergey Kiriyenko, who has been responsible for governing parts ofoccupied Ukraine.[4]
In May 2022, Ivanovna toldUkrainska Pravda that she met the Ukrainian soldiers, whom she had erroneously identified as Russian, with a Soviet flag not out of sympathy, but because she felt the need to reconcile with them so that they would not "destroy" the village and Ukraine after her house was shelled, and that she felt like a "traitor" due to the way her image was exploited by Russia.[8] The next month, she spoke toBBC News and stated that she did not support the war but claimed that she had (mistakenly) greeted two Russian soldiers and that, at the time, she was "just happy that Russians would come and not fight with us. I was happy that we would unite again."[9] In August 2022, she toldBBC News Russian that she still lived in Velyka Danylivka and was "not going to leave anywhere."[12] The promotion of the "Grandmother with a red flag" in Russian state-controlled media almost stopped after it was discovered that Ivanovna was not opposed to the Ukrainian state.[12]
On 26 August 2022, Russian troops hoisted theSoviet Victory Banner inPisky, a fortified village nearDonetsk, during their attempt to push the Ukrainian military out of theDonbas.[13]
Additionally, manyLenin statues, which had beentaken down by the Ukrainians in the preceding years, were re-erected inRussian-occupied regions.[2][5][6][7]
In order to counter the Russians' Soviet symbols, the Ukrainian authorities have increaseddecommunization efforts. In August 2023, theSoviet emblem on theMother Ukraine Statue inKyiv was removed and subsequently replaced by theUkrainian coat of arms.[14]
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